{"podcast":{"title":"Harvard Business Review","slug":"harvard-business-review-7777387","podcast_index_feed_id":7777387,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VG7900701114","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/980142f0-0d9c-11f1-9b6f-b39130a8b54a/image/fd144eac00da8bd04368206590cf5ad8.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"HBR","episode_count":511,"summary":"At Harvard Business Review, we believe in management. If the world’s organizations and institutions were run more effectively, if our leaders made better decisions, if people worked more productively, we believe that all of us — employees, bosses, customers, our families, and the people our businesses affect — would be better off. We try to arm our readers with ideas that help them become smarter, more creative, and more courageous in their work. We encourage comments, critiques, and questions. We expect our community to be a safe space for respectful, constructive, and thought-provoking discussion. We reserve the right to remove or turn off comments at our discretion. We do not tolerate bullying, name-calling, or abusive language related to identity, including race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age, or region; spam; copyright violation; extreme profanity; or p*rnography.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-25T12:22:10.972032+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387"},"episode":{"title":"The Surprising Problems with Pursuing Your Passion","slug":"the-surprising-problems-with-pursuing-your-passion","published_at":"2026-06-15T01:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/the-surprising-problems-with-pursuing-your-passion","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG5357230358.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG5357230358.mp3","summary":"The Surprising Problems with Pursuing Your Passion 23 Jan 2023 --- Insisting on doing work you love can have downsides. Finding a job aligned with your passion might take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in paid employment incurs an existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to be deliberate about how large of a role work should have in your life, says Erin Cech, author or “The Trouble With Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality” (https://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Passion-Searching-Fulfillment-Inequality/dp/0520303229). More on this topic: https://hbr.org/2022/10/striking-a-balance-between-your-passion-and-your-paycheck More on Erin Cech: https://lsa.umich.edu/soc/people/faculty/erin-cech.html 00:00 Pursuing your passion seems like a no brainer, but it can be based on false assumptions. 00:31 One of those false assumptions is that the labor market is meritocratic and fair. It ain’t. 02:11 For example, let’s look at two aspiring programmers from very different backgrounds. 03:25 Employers love passion, but maybe not for the reasons you think. 04:40 Passion won’t insulate you from the stresses of the modern world of work. 06:30 Alright, what’s a healthier way to orient yourself towards work, then? Follow us: https://hbr.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-business-review/ https://www.facebook.com/HBR/ https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz https://www.instagram.com/harvard_business_review Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters #HarvardBusinessReview #Passion #Work #Capitalism #Economics Copyright © 2023 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi…","meta_description":"The Surprising Problems with Pursuing Your Passion 23 Jan 2023 --- Insisting on doing work you love can have downsides. Finding a job aligned with your pa…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":649,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/harvard-business-review-7777387/episodes/the-surprising-problems-with-pursuing-your-passion/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/the-surprising-problems-with-pursuing-your-passion.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}